Fairfield man brings music to Vallejo hospital

Arnufo Sarmiento, 75, of Cordelia, plays the piano in the lobby of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Vallejo. Sarmiento, a dialysis patient at Kaiser, learned to play the piano by ear and has a repetoire of some 300 songs.

A love song trickles through a large sun-lit lobby on a warm Thursday afternoon, issuing from the fingers of a stately gentleman seated at a corner piano.

Several people gather in nearby chairs, applauding quietly between songs.

It is not a concert hall, but the main patient lobby for Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center. The pianist is not a paid performer, but a senior patient with nothing but a list of more than a hundred song titles handwritten on a sheaf of papers and his cane hooked on the piano's edge.

"I play whatever is most beautiful," 75-year-old Arnulfo Sarmiento said between songs.

The native of Catanduanes Province in the Philippines said he never received formal training on reading music, but has managed to recreate his favorite songs by ear since he first began playing at the age of 19.

"I had to learn little by little. Just one C, one key. It's constant, touching the keys. The first music that I played was "Ramona." That's where everything started. I would recommend it..... you know it -- it's an old song, 'la da da da da.' "

Having impressed enough people with his performances at festivals and senior centers in the area since 1984, Sarmiento has been given free rein on Kaiser Vallejo's piano since it showed up during a hospital remodel a few years ago -- among other pianos around town, he said.

"It makes a nicer hospital environment," said Tweedy, who as a former firefighter has had his share of hospital visits. "This is a place where usually things are bad -- people come here because they have to be here."

While he lives in Fairfield, Sarmiento never misses a chance to play at the Vallejo hospital, his wife said. Sarmiento said he has even had to wait up to an hour while someone else finishes their playing.

"He always wants to come here. He says, 'Come on, I want to play,' " Sarmiento's wife, Violetta, said, laughing. "The only thing he doesn't play is classical music. He plays the rumba. Sometimes I tell him, 'Why don't you play (faster paced) music in Kaiser. He said, 'Are you crazy? The patients would get up and start to dance!' "

The music serves as a sort of shorthand between the couple, married since 1979. When Violetta is upset with her husband, he woos her with a song. When Arnulfo is sad, he plays to feel better, the couple explained.

"I have to listen to him, because if it's not right, I will tell him. If I don't like the music, I will suggest to him to play another piece," Violetta explained.

"She gives me the hardest parts," Arnulfo responded, with a grin.

Even after a doctor's recommendation that Arnulfo needed dialysis treatment, he balked -- fearing it would affect movement in his fingers and his ability to play, Violetta said.

It was not until after he fell in December that he agreed to the treatment, she said.

"But it's OK -- he still plays good," she added.

Arnulfo, quick to point out that he shares his age with the Golden Gate Bridge, is also proud of skill -- with or without the ability to read music.

"One time, when I arrived here, I went to City College and I wanted to enroll in Piano 101," Arnulfo said, falling into the easy pattern of a well-worn story. "So I sit at the piano and I get playing and one of the professors said, 'Hey, what are you doing?'

'I want to learn how to read music.'

'No more, no more, that's too much for you.'

"Because I'm a distraction. Because every time I sit at the piano, everybody surrounds me. The class stops because of me," Arnulfo explained.